jloos

Well the drawing for the last 90 lower tickets was to be held yesterday at 4:00. I went there after class and - they said it was moved to today at 12:00 in the Loading Dock. I head down there after class and surprise - there is a private event in the Loading Dock from 12 - 2. Did anyone else put their name in this drawing? I'm beginning to think it was just a sick joke. Or are the student gov't members actually this incompetent?

From the Forum today: This kid will likely turn out to be a very sought after recruit. Shattuck new home for Dowzak Terry Vandrovec,The Forum Published Thursday, September 23, 2004 For a stay-at-home defenseman, as his coach called him, Tysen Dowzak sure is a long way from home. The 16-year-old junior is in his third year at Shattuck-St. Mary's boarding school in Faribault, some 225 miles from his hometown of Fergus Falls. He left behind his parents and an Otters program that, prior to last season, had been to seven consecutive Minnesota state hockey tournaments. "It took a lot of thought," Dowzak said while in Fargo last week for an exhibition game against the Fargo-Moorhead Jets. "But I made a good decision." It was not, however, the easy decision. "Two and two is still four," Shattuck coach Tom Ward said of transitioning from a public school to a private one. "It's a little more information, faster." That's in the classroom and on the ice. The school has a reputation of preparing its students for the ACTs and the NHL; recent draft picks Zach Praise, Drew Stafford, A.J. Thelen and Matt Smaby went to Shattuck. Dowzak said a typical day consists of class, practice, a team workout, a mandatory study hall and, if necessary, an ice bath. The Shattuck prep team, the most advanced of the school's eight squads, plays a 70-game schedule that spans seven months and seven states, and forces players to complete assignments on-line. This is exactly what Dowzak had in mind when at age 13, he chose to attend Shattuck instead of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. "The first year was a big adjustment," said Dowzak, who has also chased pucks in France and Sweden. "I struggled a lot getting used to working harder in the classroom and working harder on the ice. It's worth it." The work may eventually be worth millions. Dowzak helped Team USA to a second-place finish Under-17 Five Nations Tournament in Hall, Germany this summer. College recruiters can't officially speak to the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder yet, but he is already being mentioned among the best defensemen nationally in his class. "Obviously, he's a giant," Ward said. "He's a big boy and he's learning the physical game with and without the puck. Right now, he's a stay-at-home defenseman." And yet he's going places.

North Dakota guardsman killed by bomb in Iraq Associated Press Published Wednesday, September 22, 2004 BISMARCK, N.D. - A North Dakota National Guard soldier died in Iraq after he was hit by a bomb, the military said Wednesday. The guardsman died shortly after midnight while on patrol near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Guard spokesman Rob Keller said. "The soldier is confirmed as having been killed during this attack. No other soldiers received serious injuries that we are aware of," Keller said. The man was not identified, and no age or hometown was given. He was assigned to the Guard's 141st Engineer Combat Battalion's Company B, based in Jamestown. Military officials in Iraq said Wednesday that a soldier killed by a bomb near Tikrit was in a vehicle when he spotted a suspicious object at the side of the road. It turned out to be a bomb, which detonated and killed the soldier, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the Army's 1st Infantry Division. O'Brien did not identify the soldier. The North Dakota victim's family has been notified and the state Guard's family support group is using a "phone tree" to spread the word to other soldiers' families, Keller said. "That's our extended family and we want them to hear that it's not their soldier," he said. About 475 members of the 141st are stationed in Iraq. They arrived in Kuwait on Feb. 15 and were expected to serve about a year. The soldiers are in three primary locations _ near Balad and Baqubah, which are just north of Baghdad, and near Tikrit, the home town of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Tikrit is about 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. Two other members of the unit were killed in May. They were Spc. Philip Brown, 21, of Jamestown, and Spc. James Holmes, 28, of East Grand Forks, Minn. About 19 have been wounded. Wednesday's death brings to six the number of North Dakota National Guardsmen killed in Iraq.

Perfect, it will never happen, but perfect. While watching the lottery this year I said the same thing after a group of freshman girls got seats. I say open up the Olympic rink for those that just go to the games to socialize. They can glance at the TV's and spend the majority of their time discussing which frat house they plan to crash at for the night.

I really can't complain too much about not getting tickets this year, being I got them last year and I'm only going to spend 2 years at UND. I feel worse for the junior and senior undergrad students that were given the shaft. My solution - Have a weighted lottery. Seniors get 4 chances, Juniors 3 etc... for those that haven't gotten tickets before. For those that had tickets the previous season - look at how many of the games they actually went to, if it is less than 75% pair them up with another who missed 1/4 or more games and offer them one seat - one gets Fri games, the other Sat - allow them to trade between each other. For those that went to the majority of the games (over 75%) allow them to get tickets again. For prof/grad programs allocate a certain number for those students and repeat above. Beside myself there was only one other law student that signed up for season tickets.

Is anybody going to the raffle this afternoon? I have class until 5:10, I hope you don't have to be present to win. They said you didn't but they seem to like changing things at the last minute.

I like the wildlife idea. I say put a pic of a wheatfield with pheasants flying over it. Who goes first between ND and SD? I could see SD wanting something similar. Also a pic of Teddy R. would be appropriate.

Last year the Sioux lost a couple of games at the Ralph. It was better than the previous years, but I for one do not pay money to see the home team lose. If you please make sure the Sioux win all of there home games this season, it would be much appreciated.

They still have goalie issues. Christian keeps getting lit up, the kid from South has been doing pretty good. They are a little shallow on D, but they probably have one of the best group of forwards in the tourny.

The op-ed in the student paper today appears that the student pres and vp blame the UND police for their failed plan. Really? I thought the student government spent the past year developing a plan. Yet they didn't realize the obvious problem of a stampede. What did they think, students would just casually show up some time after 8:00? This makes sense, say it's the PD's fault for not arresting students for being on public property. Yes, Ms. VP "you just student" and me tarzan. Sorry to tell you, but it is your job to specialize in event planning. You were supposed to plan the ticket distribution "event" I would say this is event planning. As the event planner it was your responsibility to establish some crowd control. Obviously you were not on the same page with the UPD. Clearly the student gov't dropped the ball. It appears they have a bright future in politics. They are quickly learning how to deflect the blame.

I think he could be a Porter type player. He didn't exactly play in a well scouted league, so other teams may not have been familiar with him. If he puts up numbers even close to what Porter did last year he will be an impact player.

The season is coming up pretty quick. Does anyone know when and if they are having an inter-squad scrimmage like last year?

They don't hate Sioux fans near as much as Gopher fans, so don't expect the kind of hatred that WPos experienced. The last time I was there (for a Sioux game) I wasn't old enough to drink, so it was a while ago. The arena is a step up from St. Cloud, but that's not saying much. I would probably look for seats up high, middle of the ice (obviously). The balcony isn't that high, so they should still be good seats.

The Sioux should have the best defense in the WCHA, if not the country. The Sioux return seniors Matt Jones, Andy Schneider and Nick Fuher, junior Matt Greene (the Edmonton Oilers tried very hard to get him to sign a pro contract) and sophomore Matt Smaby. They also have the #2 ranked freshman defenseman coming in, Kyle Radke, who is known for his offensive skills. The Sioux also return both starting goalies, and have the No. 3 ranked freshman goalie, Phil Lamoreaux. They did lose scoring, but have some returning players that will be able to score, including Stafford, Brad Murray, Chris Porter, Genoway, McMahon, Fylling as well as the No. 1 ranked freshman forward, Travis Zajac. Even if the Sioux have trouble scoring, how are they going to get by the defense? The Sioux will be tough. There are, however, 5 other teams in the WCHA that will also be pretty good---Wisconsin, UMD, Denver, CC and Minnesota. Minnesota lost even more than the Sioux with the loss of several key seniors and the early departure of Ballard and Vanek. I'm looking forward to this season.

The extra 90 seats are going to be given away at midnight Wed. Do not show up at the student government office on Monday or Tuesday and put your name in.

He is very impressive. Last year he was listed at 6-5 200+lbs as a sophomore He is from Fergus Falls, I remember hearing about him in youth hockey. Unlike Beaverson he is a very good skater and good with the puck. Beaverson was a gamble, I think the Sioux picked him becuase of his size, thinking he would improve other parts of his game. Dowzek already has a fairly complete game for his age. He is one kid that will likely be taken fairly high in the NHL draft. Assuming there will still be an NHL when he's old enough.

Good idea. I don't know anyone on student government, and I don't think they had any bad intentions. However, they obviously did not brainstorm the situation. At least I hope they didn't. What did they expect, people to just magically appear right at 8:00? There plan didn't work, and yes I stopped by their office to question the plan. I was told to go to an informational meeting and all my questions would be answered. I had class during said meeting and could not attend. From Forecheck's post I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have mattered. If they are going to have a lottery, that's fine. Personally I think a weighted lottery is the best idea, I believe the UofM does this. Give the upperclassmen a better chance or better yet let them renue their tickets from the previous year. The student government likely has no evil intentions. However they sure didn't put much thought into the process. I showed up at 7:00 yesterday fully expecting there to be a couple hundred people ahead of me. I was pleased to see there was, this shows to me that the Sioux have a die-hard student following. If these people were to get tickets and I wasn't I would be dissapointed, but not upset. Why the student government didn't realize this is beyond me, they must not be die hard Sioux hockey fans.

I voiced my concerns, but it was being run by the student government, there didn't appear to be any oversight. It is sad that college students need to be supervised by adults. I forsee the lower seats to be fairly empty this year, especially early and late in the game. These people show up to find out where the parties at then leave. I sat by dozens of them last year. This year there appears to be more of these types. I've never seen a raffle like the one they had. Instead of drawing one number and having everyone like up from there; they drew numbers until the number of seats were full. This process took a couple of hours. I guess I'm too old to sit in the student section anyway.

From my experience with the last two ticket distributions I've found they are very unorginized, they change the way they do things at the last minute. If they are going to have a lottery - then have a lottery. I saw the person handing out tickets give a couple of arm lengths worth to his buddies. I just assumed this person was with the student government. I still think I assumed correctly.

Ziggy was never given a chance at UND. He was a USHL all-star caliber goalie, and split time with Lammy. I find it funny that people think Lammy is the second coming and Ziggy was just around for a practice goalie. I don't fault Ziggy or the coaches. To be fair Ziggy wasn't really rectuited by UND, he came here to play for the home town. However with all the goalie juggling done at UND, you would think Ziggy would at least get a shot in a NC game. I think the only time he played was in the exhibition game against the U18 team.

I don't know about 'die hard fans' but it appears those with friends on student government got tickets pretty easy. Some had 20-30 tickets on them, each card carrier was supposed to have one. Overall the process isn't really 'unfair'. It just ticks me off the number of students that go to the games because of the social event, not the game.

If I was a young single college guy I would be too upset with that. They should require a basic hockey test for those that want tickets, it would weed out about 1/2 of the people. Then just put chearleader uniforms on the ditzy girls that just go to the games to pick up guys and talk on their phones. So we would easily have enough cheerleaders for each section, plus all the students get tickets. Problem solved. Is any student on here getting tickets?

I would through the ECAC in there. There chances are less than the other 4 but are much greater than the CHA and AHA (or whatever the hell they're called). Colgate has had some good recruiting classes. Harvard has had some good teams. I believe Harvard was the last ECAC team to win it all, that was in the early 90's. This is off the top of my head though.

Looks like I'll be watching the games on TV. I'm happy to report the student section will have plenty of Freshman girls that will spend 1/2 their time on their cell phones. Of course they'll only go to the games if they don't have any sorority events planed.

I know all of the Moorhead kids are going (except Lee). It is a long drive for the players from Bismarck & Minot. I imagine the second game of the day will be tough on Sat. It is a good way to get in shape.